


Striped fur and tiny claws

by cucumber_of_doom



Series: Fluffy Mormor [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Kittens, M/M, Sebastian Moran is a big softie who happens to shoot people for a living
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:31:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2809160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cucumber_of_doom/pseuds/cucumber_of_doom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sebastian meets a tiger cub he wants to keep it. Jim doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Striped fur and tiny claws

It started as an almost normal job. Some stupid little fucker from the States came to Jim for help, Jim solved his problem and then the wannabe criminal disappeared without paying. Stupid, really, but not unheard and to keep up his image the consulting criminal packed up both a suitcase and his sniper and headed over to collect the late fee. With a bullet to the face, because sometimes the Napoleon of Crime needed to send a message: Don't fuck with me.

Which left Jim Moriarty (consulting criminal) and Sebastian Moran (ex-army sniper, bodyguard and sometimes lover of of aforementioned consulting criminal) standing next to the now faceless corpse of said slightly overweight American whose lack of self-preservation had ended his life in a rather predictable fashion. 

Both men would have probably walked right out and driven back to the airport if the deceased had not had a both rather expensive and unusual hobby neither if them had been aware of: their former customer was a collector of big cats. Had Jim been aware of that fact, he would have picked someone else to pull the trigger.

The problem was, that instead of driving him back towards civilization (and Jim was rather particular about what places counted as such), Sebastian sat cross legged on the white tile floor, cuddling the tiger cub in his lap.

“Who is going to be a big, fierce, man-eating warrior queen one day? You are, darling”, he cooed at the chubby ball of fur while squeezing it's little paws and letting it chew on his fingers. It would have been endearing if not for the dead man behind the coffee table and Jim's complete lack of appreciation.

“Get up, we have a flight to catch, Seb.”

Sebastian looked up from his place on the floor  
“Do we have to?”, he asked and pulled the tiger cub closer to his chest. 

Jim rolled his eyes.  
“Yes. I prefer to be back home before Mr Young over there starts smelling if you don't mind.”

Really, he had known his sniper had a... thing for tigers but up until know he had assumed it was more about shooting them and less about snuggling.

“Can we keep her?”

Jim blinked once. Twice. This wasn't happening.  
“No. Of course not. We won't take a bloody tiger back home, Moran.” And this should have been the end of the discussion, really. Because Sebastian Moran was relatively smart man who knew when not to argue. Usually.

“But boss, she is tiny. She would even fit into my bag if I threw out the spare shoes. I will take care of her, take her for walks and shit. People have all kinds of exotic pets, heck, maybe not tigers but... when have you ever cared about the fucking law? Please.”

Jim stared because a grown man with as much combat experience as Sebastian shouldn't be able to manage that kind of look on his face. Damn those blue eyes, they were almost enough to make him give in if not the fact that Sebastian was talking about the possibility of taking a bloody tiger back home. That wasn't happening, no matter how convenient the animal might become for body disposal once it was bigger. Tigers weren't exactly subtle.

Jim crossed his arms, stern look back in place.  
“I don't care about the law, I care about having a tiger in the flat. My very nice penthouse flat. The one with the very narrow balcony.”

“Jim-”, Sebastian started but was cut off.

“Listen closely because I won't say an equally ridiculous sentence out loud ever again in my life: No, Sebastian, we are not keeping the baby tiger.”

“But-”

Jim held up a finger to shut the other one up.  
“Did you listen?” A nod. “Good. Now put that thing down before it tears you into shreds or something.”

Sebastian shifted but didn't let go of the cub yet. “She's only a baby, Jim. She can't look after herself. Helpless little thing is way too small to hurt anyone.”

Jim could have smacked him. Instead he only tapped his foot.  
“Your arms are bleeding, if you didn't notice, as are your hands. Which I still need fully functioning for you to do your job.”

Sebastian pulled a face, clearly unhappy with the thought of letting go of the warm animal in his lap which went back to happily gnawing on the snipers already reddened left hand. He sighted, scratched the tiger cub under it's chin and carefully put it down. He awkwardly rose to his feet, brushing fur of his shirt and looked at Jim sheepishly.

“Good, Sebastian. We are leaving now, thought you may call animal control once we are at the airport. We are no savages who leave animals to starve in their cages, are we?”

*

Sebastian didn't mope, not exactly. He still did his job, cared too much about sports and not enough about politics. He even cracked stupid jokes that made Jim throw things at him to shut him up. Yet there where those moments since their return from Florida where he caught himself watching one too many videos of eccentric rich people playing with their pet tigers. And the ones about how tigers really weren't meant to be pets to get over leaving the little ray of potentially murderous sunshine behind. If Jim was aware of his YouTube history (who was he kidding? Of course Jim knew) he hadn't said anything about it, which Sebastian was grateful for. He didn't need the additional humiliation of admitting to his temporary obsession. Because it was stupid.

The guy he shot had owned a property bigger than some farms Sebastian had seen and while that still wasn't exactly the Indian jungle the big outdoor cages were more tiger friendly than their penthouse flat in the City of Westminster, no matter how close Hyde Park was. He simply liked big animals, got caught up in the moment and would get over it with time.

Just because he had spend some time of his life hunting and shooting tigers didn't mean he hadn't a ton of respect for those animals and only wanted them dead. The number of humans he shot far outnumbered the tigers and yet no one accused him of wanting to kill every person he met. That only applied to some of them and he only rarely gave in to those impulses without Jim's involvement.

Speaking of Jim:

The man still wasn't back from whatever secret meeting he had left for early that morning. Sebastian had offered to accompany him but Jim had declined, muttering something about being able to look after himself once in a while. Which left Sebastian stranded in the kitchen for a late afternoon snack. He dumped the bread on the counter, followed by a package of sliced ham and the rest of cheese before returning to Jim's unusual absence.

Jim going alone wasn't unheard of but happened rarely and Sebastian couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Not that he was opposed to an unexpected day off - those happened rarely enough – but obvious secrets were something to be weary of in his line of work.

Sebastian frowned at the empty mug in the sink. Jim had been unusually secretive the last few weeks but he always had those phases where he kept his thoughts to himself. Not a reason to worry but weird all the same. And he hadn't done anything to make Jim consider getting rid of him, did he? No, Jim would have let him know if he did. 

Sebastian shrugged and returned to slathering his cheese and ham sandwich in mustard. He contemplated getting a plate but there was no one present to judge him for eating lunch above the sink. The perks of being a grown man and all that.

Halfway through his sandwich he heard the sound of the front door opening. He hastily swallowed and wiped his mouth, suddenly embarrassed while listening to Jim shedding his coat and walking into the living room. He guiltily placed the rest of the sandwich on the counter, took a deep calming breath and went to greet Jim.

There was a tiny, black and orange striped kitten sitting on the hardwood floor, meowing miserably. Sebastian stared, then looked over to Jim who looked out of the French doors leading out onto the balcony.

“I did some research and this seems to be the closest to a pocket version of that horrendous beast you wanted. It is called a Toyger. Keep it or throw it out, I certainly don't care”, he said, still facing the window.

Sebastian looked back to the kitten and, after fighting his pride for a second, extending his hand for the little feline to sniff.  
“You got me a cat?”, he addressed Jim who made a noncommittal sound. 

“Only to make you stop fretting. It's disgusting to witness.”

“You got me a cat. You hate cats, Jim.”

The kitten slowly approached him, tentatively sniffing Sebastian's fingers before it let out another tiny meow, rubbed it's head against his palm and started purring.

Jim finally turned around, an unreadable expression on his face. Sebastian beamed at him after scooping the kitten up against his chest where it sank it's little claws into his t-shirt to look around. It was only now that Sebastian noticed the unopened boxes stuffed behind the armchair. Jim hadn't only gotten him a cat but also some supplies.

Jim pointed at him. “If this thing gets fur on my suits _you_ are the one who gets made into a rug. After cleaning the litter box, because I am not touching that. Are we clear, Moran?”

“Clear as day, sir. No kitten fluff on your Westwood.”

“Good. And you have mustard on your chin.”

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who is interested in what Toygers look like:  
> [They are adorable!](http://cucumber-of-doom.tumblr.com/post/105182981146/bulldawg12-the-toyger-a-cat-breed-bred-to)  
> [Even more as kittens!](http://cucumber-of-doom.tumblr.com/post/104420554011/perfect-kitty-for-jim-to-give-to-seb-y-y)
> 
> If you want to see me rambling about writing and a lot of random blogging, visit my [tumblr](http://cucumber-of-doom.tumblr.com/) because that's where the cool kids are.


End file.
